Sign Language

We are three days in to learning Sign Language and Tristan is a pro.  All the signs I have given him, he remembers!!  It's crazy how fast he learns stuff!  I'm not adding a bunch more words right now.  I'll probably add one or two a day...

As of today, these are the signs we are learning:
God, Jesus, Mom, Dad, Boy, Girl, Baby

More, Eat, Milk, Water, Hotdog

Please, Thank You, Yes, No, Stop, I Love You (which he has known how to sign for a long time)

Red, Cup, 'Applause' (clapping hands)

I have an amazing website that I'm using to teach myself!  It has a great video of 100 basic signs.  I'm watching it over and over, and practicing with it... I'm also reviewing the alphabet and numbers, which I learned in elementary school... so it's been a while. lol

Back to Bed

We had to put our foot down about Tristan getting up in the morning.
Last night, I had a little talk about if the light is red (on his clock) he needs to stay in bed!!  This is a conversation that we have had many, many times...
If he wakes up and has to potty, he can go but then use his little flashlight to get back in bed and go back to sleep.  Kaleb also set up the motion sensor email system on the camera, too.  So, when there is movement, I get an email with a couple pics in it. 

Tristan did in fact wake up early... BUT he got back in bed!!  This was a great accomplishment!  I rewarded him when I got up and praised him for doing the right thing and being obedient to us. :) 

We had a pretty good day today.
I had to accompany my mother-in-law to an enrollment info meeting for a new process for their business.  Tristan got to spend some time with Papa. 
There was some pretty awesome trees in the parking lot. 

Four And A Half!

Tristan is 4 1/2 years old today!!  Hard to believe...

I didn't take ANY pictures today :(  Not a one.  I totally spaced it... and Tristan was being a huge monster!!  He was being very defiant all day.  It started before we left for church... continued at church.. and followed into the potluck we had after church.

When we got home, I made him take a nap!!  And he went right to sleep.  Of course, that meant that he stayed up late... but with the time change wreaking havoc on internal clocks and such, it had to be done anyway...

He was a much nicer boy in the evening!

Dinner Out

Tristan was showing signs of being tired this morning.  I suggested that he should take a nap... then I got a text from Kaleb saying that he was going to have to work late.  So, if he was going to see Tristan, Tristan would need to take a nap!
I told Tristan... and he didn't argue at all - he REALLY must have been tired. lol

Only thing, Kaleb messages close to him getting off work and says that he doesn't have to work late after all... and asked if I wanted to go out.  And since Tristan had a nap... we took him with us! :)  That doesn't happen much for dinner (we usually do lunch with him), because after 3pm he turns into a gremlin!  And it's usually pretty bad...

We went to Olive Garden for the never ending pasta bowls.  It was good as usual.  Tristan had Mac & Cheese with fries, grapes and milk.  He finished all his fries, grapes and milk... and ate about half of his pasta.  His overall behavior was probably an 8...

Tristan took a pic of us together, too.  It's a little blurry... but decent...

I've been teaching Tristan some sign language here and there.  Reminding him of ones that I taught him when he was a baby... adding others like please and thank you.  I've always wanted to learn Sign Language... so now Tristan and I are learning together ;)
Anyway, we are at Olive Garden, I'm asking him to show me different signs... and he asks me what's the sign for "oh no."  I'm like, "I have no idea, Tristan."  Then put my hands to my face and made a face very similar to the one below.  Tristan and Kaleb started cracking up!  Which made me laugh... and now, Tristan is making that face.  There was even a point when he was getting ready for bed and his reaction would have been appropriate to say, "oh no."  Instead, he made this face!  It was hilarious.  I think an inside joke has been born!  :) I need to get it on video... it won't be nearly as funny as it was tonight... but still funny. :)

Go Fish & Texting Daddy

Tristan wanted to play some games after his nap today (yes, he napped!  It was a miracle! lol more on that in the next post)... we started with Candyland... then I taught him how to play Go Fish.  We hadn't played that yet...

Kaleb, my awesomely amazing geek of a husband, has been able to create a free working cell phone.  He took my old cell phone, which is rooted... got a Google Voice number and the Hangouts app...
Now, as long as it's on Wi-Fi, it's a working cell phone!
It's a phone that we are planning on letting Tristan have.  Right now, it's "Mommy & Daddy's special phone".  We are going to let him use it under supervision until Christmas, then hopefully, we can give it to him as a gift! :)
Anyway, we took a little break from our game... and Tristan text messaged Kaleb for the first time.  It was so cute!  He did pretty good, too.  I only helped him a little bit.

Here's how the conversation went:
Tristan: Hi daddy. :-)
Kaleb: Hi Tristan! How are you?
T: Good. Playing cards with mommy :-)
T: Go fish
K: Who is winning?
T: Me
K: Good job :-)
T: I took all her 8s :)
K: Do you like being able to send me messages?
T: Yes, daddy.
K: I'm on my way home. I will see you soon. :-)

November First

Tristan's school work for today.  With all the quotes, it was a little tricky... but he got through it.  And he only had a couple mistakes he needed to correct.

Happy Halloween!

This is going to be a long post of the events today.  It's been a long day!

When I got up and checked Tristan's clock... I found that he got up at 3:45AM!!  O.o  ugh!

Nothing I could do about it at that point.  But told him that he HAD to take a nap later if he wanted to go trick-or-treating or to the Harvest Party at our church.
There was no Friday School today, so we went to the Gleaner's instead.  I had Tristan go get his costume on.  He stole my headband and put it on...

Tristan wanted to take a pic of me with my ears on, too.  And a selfie... which I wish I would have done another of... that one didn't turn out too well.

After the Gleaner's (where he read a Dr. Seuss book), we headed to see Nana at work.  He gave her a giant candy bar :)  Totally made her day.

We went to see Daddy at work, too.  Our little pumpkin brought Daddy lunch!  Unfortunately, he was out on an emergency call...

We headed home, Tristan had lunch and then I put him in bed for a nap!  I think he was asleep by the time I closed his bedroom door; he was super tired.
Tristan woke up and came out to the living room.  He climbed up on my lap and then went back to sleep.  I carried him back to his room and laid him back in bed.  He slept for another 30-40 minutes!

We then packed up and headed out.  I let him go to a couple neighbors' houses first... 
 

 

Our first stop: Jamba Juice for a free smoothie!  Tristan picked strawberry banana.

Then we headed to downtown Mount Vernon for some trick-or-treating at the shops...  The Mount Vernon Police gave him a glow stick necklace.  He thought that was pretty cool :)

 

It didn't take nearly as long as I thought to go through downtown.  It was about 30-40 minutes, tops.  Then we hopped back in the car...  We had a bunch of time before the Harvest Party at our church started, but with traffic, we couldn't go far if we wanted to be on time. 

So we headed to Papa Lance's house.  He was pretty surprised.

From there we went to McDonald's and picked up a special Halloween dinner for Tristan... then headed to the Harvest Party.  A little side note, I made the flyers for the party again this year.  I thought they turned out pretty cool.

Tristan had a lot of fun playing all the games.

This is probably Tristan's favorite girl at the church.  I wouldn't be surprised at all if down the road many years, if she is Tristan's first crush.  She's really great... and loves hanging out with Tristan.  :)  

Between the trick-or-treating downtown and the Harvest Party, Tristan got a lot of candy!

Ending the night reading his Bible with Daddy.  :)  Turned out to be a great day, despite the rocky start...